Medicinal Chemistry, Photopharmacology and Imaging

Welcome on the website of the research group Medicinal Chemistry, Photopharmacology and Imaging.

Scientifically, we are driven by a simple idea: to activate the medicines only in those parts of the patient’s bodies where it is necessary, thereby avoiding side effects and emergence of drug resistance elsewhere. This idea poses us with two key questions: how do we know where the drug activity is needed (this is the imaging part in our name), and how do we selectively activate the drug (this is photopharmacology part in our name). Medicinal chemistry binds it all together: in the end, it is at the level of molecules that all the imaging and therapy magic happens.

Our main approach to image-based pharmacotherapy is to build a molecular bridge between light and medicine. We use light to do the imaging (optical and optoacoustic imaging methods, and molecular MRI), and we use light (all the way from visible to gamma rays) to activate the drugs. To achieve this, we focus mostly on the organic synthesis of compounds that are both photoactive and bioactive. We create new light-responsive tools that will allow us to translate light to a biological effect, and we incorporate them into existing drugs, focusing mostly on the treatment of cancer and bacterial infections, where side effects and emergence of resistance are key upcoming threats to healthcare.